Business

This developer is using only Apple products for his next game Escape Code. Game developer and online course pioneer John Bura talks about why his education company also makes video games.

John Bura’s Background

The first time I ever coded was at my local university. I was 12. I spent my summer coding in C++ and Visual Basic. In the 90s there was a huge rage for Visual Basic, a programming language from Microsoft. I made small games, and I enjoyed it.

I wanted to make an Xbox 360 game, but that required coding in C# and XNA. There were virtually no courses that showed you how to do this. I bought a DVD set and learned from that. Soon I came out with my Xbox game.

My career skyrocketed as a result. Several apps on the App Store later, people asked me, “John, how do you make an app? How do you make a game?”

In response to my followers, I made a huge 50-hour tutorial on how to make a game from scratch, including art, music, and coding. That became a runaway hit. I became the first instructor on Udemy to teach through practical projects. I became a top seller on Udemy, and the rest is history.

I started Mammoth Interactive, my online education company. It began with me making tutorials in my bedroom. But I wanted to grow the business.

Scaling a Business

One of the best ways to scale the online education side of Mammoth Interactive was to make as much content as possible. When I began hiring people to work with me, I thought I could hire someone and they’d make a quarter to half as much money as I made. I thought I would hire 1 to 2 people a month. That totally didn’t work. Though I did grow my team, I didn’t scale at such a high rate.

I found out that the online education market that we’re in is a subset of a bigger market: the online instructor marketplace market. Right now, there are few players on the market of online education platforms. As such, scalability is limited on many platforms, such as Udemy.

What I Expected When Starting a Business

I thought the more courses I produced, the more money I would make. That is technically true. However, the percentage is nowhere near where I wanted it to be. We’re technically making more money right now than if I were a solo entrepreneur. However, the margins are much thinner.

I’m not the only one expanding my business. Lots of people who started on Udemy now have multiple people working for them. It’s becoming harder to be a solo entrepreneur in the space.

This echoes the game development space. Lots of developers like Atari began as individuals but expanded. The course market is going the same way. Every top solo instructor has at least a video editor or an assistant.

If you’re starting to make money as an online instructor, one of the best pieces of advice I can give is to outsource administrative tasks so that you can make more content. The more content you make, the more money you’ll make.

As you grow your team, at a certain point your returns will lessen. Still, the marketplaces reward productivity to a certain extent.

Helping Other Entrepreneurs

It’s unfortunate that scalability is limited. However, some scalability exists, which is good. The way to scale this side of the business is to put your courses on as many different sites as you possibly can. On your own site, you can offer great deals by bundling courses.

I want to grow Mammoth Interactive to a business that makes 10 million a year. I must pick the right platforms to do that. Since the instructor market is a subset of a bigger market, there is limited upside. If I want to become a 10-million-dollar company, I must branch out. It’s very clear that this is the answer. The answer is NOT to alienate any people or platforms that got us to where we are. We’ll always continue to upload our courses to as many different platforms as we possibly can because our students come from different areas.

Recently we have gotten a rise in interest for consulting. I love consulting small business, online instructors, other online companies, and startups if they need help. Remember: Mammoth Interactive is a bootstrapped company. Over the years, I’ve built Mammoth Interactive to be lean.

I’ve seen so many people waste money. I have so much knowledge on to save money that it’s worth other people’s time to hear what I have to say.

How I Started Making Games

In 1997 I wanted to make a full 3D role-playing game (RPG) in my bedroom. My RPG game did not work. It failed so miserably. Despite this, I kept making games. Instead of making a massive game, I made compact projects.

I wanted to make games, but everyone was interested in my courses. So I did both.

I’ve always wanted to make creative games that people enjoyed. I’m the kind of guy that has too many ideas and not enough time or money. While making my online courses on web, game, and app development, I’m always prototyping. I have hundreds of prototypes on my computer.

With my new game Escape Code, I wanted to make a bigger project. I took my best ideas over the years and put them into Escape Code.

How I Made Escape Code

I made Escape Code using only Apple‘s tools: SpriteKit, Xcode, Swift, and Logic Pro X. Why? Because I genuinely like the way Apple builds their products. I’m a big fan of minimalism. Like Apple, I strive to make the focus of my company the end user experience. My goal places less emphasis on complex technology.

Besides SpriteKit, I like to use the game engine Construct 3. Both SpriteKit and Scirra‘s Construct 3 are easy to use, and I don’t become frustrated while trying to release a game. Frustration doesn’t lead to sales, and Apple knows this.

Why I Love Swift

With Escape Code, I wanted to use all Apple products in one epic app. Escape Code is made completely in the game platform SpriteKit, which uses the coding language Swift.

Before Swift came out, for years I’d wanted a Swift-like language for the Apple ecosystem. Coding in Apple’s old language Objective-C was hard. Very hard. Once Swift appeared, I spent 2 weeks learning everything there was to know about Swift. I produced a huge 80-hour course all by myself. It was the biggest course on Swift at the time.

I also did a ton of webinars and talked about Swift everywhere. Today it’s still my favorite language. I don’t like coding as much in any other language. Swift is easy and intuitive. Just like Apple, Swift’s minimalist approach and end user goal is something I resonate with. It’s what Mammoth Interactive is all about, too.

When someone takes our course, we don’t want them to get bogged down in any road block or obstacle. We want them to quickly understand how to do something and to make a product as fast as possible. I learned that from Apple.

The Best Kind of Educational Game

It was only logical for me to use Swift for a game in some way. The last thing I wanted Escape Code to be was an educational game. My least favorite educational games were those that asked “What’s 2+2?” and when you answered exploded a ship. Games like Civilization or SimCity are amazing games because they are fun and teach you a lot.

Civilization teaches you the history of technology in the best way possible. In fact, when I played its sci-fi version Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri I learned so much about futuristic technology that I never would’ve learned in school. SimCity teaches you about great city design without bogging you down with a rote teaching style. There is too much mechanical teaching in many educational games.

I didn’t want Escape Code to be a brutal learn-to-code game. I designed Escape Code so that the mobile device player would have a fluid and optimized experience.

A preview of our game Escape Code – get it now!

Challenges of Making a Game

The biggest design problem I had while making Escape Code was to make it easy to understand and add coding in a way that has never been done.

The last thing I wanted was for players to type a bunch of code on their mobile phones. This would not be fun to play. Instead I added a box where you input the answer to a coding related question. Players still must read the code. But the execution is simple.

A Plot Inside Code

The coolest part about Escape Code is that part of the plot happens throughout the code. Crucial plot points like in a movie appear as part of code challenges. You can’t get the full story without reading the code.

Making a Game for Absolute Beginners

Since Swift is so easy to read, anybody – even if they don’t know how to code – can understand the code. Swift is intuitive and resembles natural human language. Anyone, regardless of programming experience, can follow the game thread by reading the code. Coding enhances the story.

A preview of our game Escape Code – get it now!

Growing a Company

Escape Code is a momentous project for me because I didn’t do most of the work on the game. This is unique for me since my career is built on making projects entirely by myself.

I’ve been self-publishing since 2006. My first large entrepreneurial ventures were when I made 17 educational books and sold them all over North America. It was a wonderful learning experience for me, and it set the tone for the rest of my career. Since then I’ve done most of the work myself on a project.

Even when I produced my 80-hour Swift course (now updated) – I did everything. Video editing, sales copies, email marketing, recording, programming. Everything that had to do with the course, I did.

Learn to make 3D environments in this course by instructor Kevin Liao

I was a solo entrepreneur until 2016. That’s when Mammoth Interactive became more than just one person. Today lots of people work for me at Mammoth Interactive.

Team Mammoth

Scaling a company has been hard. It’s just as hard as starting a company. Some might say it’s even harder.

From Solo Developer to Game Team

I’ve always made games by myself: art, music, and programming. With Escape Code, I wanted to be the director. With its 14-month production cycle Escape Code took way longer than I had expected. The game cost 2 times what I’d wanted to pay. Despite that, I’m pretty happy with the way Escape Code turned out.

It was difficult to convey vision and feedback to my Escape Code teammates because we don’t work in the same location. I had to figure out so many ways to express what I know to the developers. Of course I can code a game. But there’s a huge difference between directing people to do things and doing things yourself.

It may seem counter intuitive but having help can be harder than working alone. I wanted to try splitting tasks of making a game. Mammoth Interactive was a good place at where I could do this. There were lots of problems that came along the way. I had to find innovative solutions.

How We Make Courses and Games Efficiently

At Mammoth Interactive I have a 10 10 10 Rule. That means make a product 10 percent better, 10 percent faster, and 10 percent more money. The first 2 you can control. The last one is the hardest to do.

By following the 10 10 10 Rule, we have become the fastest people to make courses in the industry. Our time to market is so short that we constantly surprise our partners on how fast we can get things done. Our efficient production practices took years to make work.

Learn to make 3D environments in this course by instructor Kevin Liao

With games I have the same pattern of making products fast. After prototyping for years, I know how to get a concept out the door fast.

Challenges of Being a Game Developer

The biggest bottleneck for me is the time it takes to make a game with 50 levels. It’s hard for me to do everything at once for a game with a bigger scope. It’s hard for any one person to do everything at once. I call it production fatigue.

Production fatigue is when you work too hard on a project and could easily complete its final tasks, but you lose willpower. Whether you’re learning how to code or wanting to be a producer, plowing through production fatigue will get you through many doors.

It’s hard to do. After creating and being an entrepreneur since I was 17, I pick my battles. Some battles are not worth picking.

Production fatigue is like hitting the wall as a long-distance runner. I’m not a long-distance runner, but from all the runners I know, the wall is the hardest part. You begin running and you want to stop so bad, but once you get past a certain point, running becomes easy.

This Game Took Twice as Long to Make, But It’s Worth It

I wanted to get Escape Code out in 6 months. This game would have taken me 3 months to do by myself, but it ended up taking 14. Luckily, Apple recently enabled app pre-orders. Pre-order Escape Code right now on the iOS and Mac App Stores!

Surprising Positives with Apple Pre-orders

Even if your project takes too long and goes over budget, an event can happen that benefits the project. If I’d released Escape Code 6 months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to put the game up for pre-order.

Pre-orders on the App Store are such a good idea. They’re a great way to help fund your game before you can release it. It would be awesome if Apple had its own crowdfunding site. You can’t do Kickstarters for iOS apps because Apple doesn’t allow redeeming of coupons on the iOS App Store.

We have had success crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter. A lot of you know that we are on Kickstarter quite a bit. The reason is that crowdfunding is a whole other stream now. Pre-ordering is as big a stream as actual sale.

The popularity of pre-ordering and crowdfunding is due to a shift in consumer thinking. Funding a product before it’s released has been normalized.

Every project we do we will try to put it on Kickstarter. It’s unfortunate Kickstarter won’t let us do multiple Kickstarters at the same time. Every project we do takes money, and we’re a project by project company. Be on the lookout for Mammoth Interactive Kickstarters. In the future we hope to see crowdfunding for iOS apps.

A Project Focused Company

As I mentioned, I have way too many ideas. Right now, I have 20 games that I’m trying to get out as soon as I possibly can. Small games – coffee break games. Escape Code is a medium-sized game, and I have plans for major games.

Before I even consider getting funding, I want to prove myself in the marketplace. Mammoth Interactive is entirely bootstrapped. That means we make a product such as a course or game, make money off that product, and reinvest the gains into another product. A lot of other technology companies find funding completely differently.

Many tech companies funding from a VC (venture capital) firm, and they get millions of dollars for a product that may or may not work. Over the last ten years I have a good record of accomplishment of making profitable projects. One day I might even get VC for a product. I do have some games that would be awesome.

I would like to bootstrap the games side of Mammoth Interactive first. Our education side is going well, and we will make a lot of fantastic courses coming up.

How We Make Courses

At Mammoth Interactive, our instructors make courses as well as individual products. I want to set up my company as Valve, the creator of Steam, has. The concept is a big room with modular teams and products. Developers and teams can collaborate and make small products.

I have a big theory on how to build a company called Mosaic development. It’s how I built Mammoth Interactive. I’ll probably do another article about this and write a book about it one day because it’s such a great idea and works so well.

Mammoth Interactive is a place where creators get stuff done. It’s not a place for people to go, get a paycheck, and come home. Our system is not for everybody, and I totally understand that. When I was new to the job market and worked for others, I felt useless and like a cog in a machine. Whether I showed up to work or not was not important. The company would still exist whether I showed up and “got work done” that day.

When I started Mammoth Interactive I wanted to make sure instructors produced something. A construction worker can point to a building and say, “I built that.” Ten years down the road they can point out the things they’ve made.

One summer in university, I worked as a landscaper. We began on a big field of dirt. We transformed it into a suburban park with trees, a playground, and sod. It’s common in the construction industry to accomplish this. Tech companies don’t do this.

Most companies are bogged down in meetings and trivial processes. At Mammoth Interactive, we make work meaningful and feel like you’re doing something every day – not just showing up and going home.

Why We Make Tutorials

One problem I’ve run into is that some developers only want to develop. They don’t want to make tutorials. Developing tutorials is like meditating. It’s one of those activities that doing a lot of improves your skills.

Programmers don’t understand that going back to the fundamentals and explaining them to a beginner makes you a better coder. It’s good for you whether you like it or not.

At the same time, if I’m not producing a side project alongside teaching, I’m not as happy. Ideally as Mammoth Interactive grows we will be able to make more content – not just training content but small products. We’re a company of small products: it’s how we began. Releasing products frequently is part of Mosaic development and is why it’s so brilliant.

Escape Code took a long time. I’m happy with its results. It’s a good-looking game. I’m excited to see how many pre-orders we get.

There are more products coming out from Mammoth Interactive other than just the education side. While we still will always produce educational content to some degree, there will be a lot of other cool stuff, so stay tuned.

The Online Education Revolution

One of the best things about the rise of online education is that people can teach part time and do other things alongside. We’ve all heard the saying, “Those that can’t do, teach.” In the past the saying might have been true when teaching was often considered a “lesser” job. In the 20th century, growth was so incredible that if you knew how to do anything, it would pay more to do it than teach it. You were considered second-rate it if you just taught because that meant you couldn’t do.

This mentality lingers with us today because the post-high school education system focuses more on theory than practicality, depending on where you go. Today we’re in a whole different area, and it’s a better area. I’ll argue that you can’t be a good programmer without being a teacher. And vice versa: you can’t be a good teacher without doing things. Today you need to do both to some degree.

Anyone Can Learn at Mammoth Interactive

If you’re a great programmer but can’t explain programming basics to others, chances are your code is too complex. If your code is too complex, collaboration (especially on bigger projects) will be a liability rather than an asset. When you teach beginners, you distill your coding knowledge to its most basic form. It’s like reducing your fractions. You want your code to be the least complex and the most efficient.

Just like how newspapers and articles make their articles readable to a grade 6 level, you should make your code readable to as many people as possible. It should be easy to understand. There’s no better way to learn to do that than to make tutorials.

You don’t have to be a teacher. Anyone can benefit from simplifying things to others. If you’ve never done it before, you’ll find it surprisingly hard. At Mammoth Interactive we’ve found an easy way to do it. As mentioned, we’re the fastest in the business at releasing a product to market.

On the other side, if you don’t produce things, your teaching skills will worsen. Part of the beginning of my teaching online is when I ran into trouble making an iOS app. I solved the problems to make the app and decided to teach people based on my experience.

I taught how I solved problems one month prior. I showed students how not to do what I did. Making an app from scratch made me a great iOS teacher. Without my hands-on experience, I would have been any other teacher who puts up a curriculum and shows theoretical problems.

Learning through Practical Projects

Instead in my courses I show you the problems that can arise, just like how this article is talking about issues with scaling a company, making tutorials, and making a game.

The mindset to have about learning is to fail forward. You cannot improve without failure. Most people pass through the education system thinking failure is a bad thing. We are taught to fear failure far too much.

Since we are a part of a knowledge economy, some things will work out and some will not. Larger companies like Coke and others make products they don’t even know will sell but that they try regardless.

When a project fails, you must figure out why. On the next project you will do a better job. Especially if you follow my aforementioned 10 10 10 Rule.

When you improve on something, it’s not during the project – it’s between projects. We at Mammoth Interactive have such a short iteration cycle so that we improve as much as we can between projects. If you make a 2-year project, there’s little room for improvement. Smaller, simpler projects lead to a bigger mosaic.

Escape Code might completely fail. Apple might not pick it up. If I lose a lot of money, I will figure out why. Sometimes the reason your project fails is completely not up to you. Success is not always up to you either. Success can be random.

The way that I deal with this randomness is by producing a lot of products and ensuring each of them is barely profitable. You don’t trust one big product to take your company forward. Instead you build small products. You never know which one of them will take you to the next level.

I don’t think Escape Code will fail. I’ll probably at least get my money back. It’s too innovative to not do well. Check out our #1 coding mechanic, engaging puzzles, and go on an adventure!

If you’re a new entrepreneur, you’re probably looking to save money. Could this be a new way? A start-up launched last month raised 50$ million to sell staple items, each at the price of 3$.

It’s name is Brandless. Hence the name, the company is making all their products 3$ by stripping away brand tax, which is the hidden costs of distributing products. However, it’ll be up to our taste buds to find out if their options really are better.

With so many options out there on what to buy, you might find yourself standing in the grocery aisle for five minutes comparing two items. What if you had fewer choices again? Though it may seem counter-intuitive, the paradox of choice is real: the more choices we have, the harder it is to make a decision. Brandless will certainly save me the time from having to make decisions. Obama, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg are all reported to wear the same shirt every morning to allow themselves to focus their decision-making skills on more important tasks.

Brandless is able to have everything for 3$ also by having a limited selection of items. Currently they have 100 items for sale on their site and are expected to release more later this year. They sell online only.

It’s certainly a good mission and interesting goal. Modern for its times, this could be the start of an industry change where we get fewer shopping options, much like how the universe is theorized to expand to its capacity and start shrinking.

According to Brandless’ standards of quality, their food has no artificial preservatives or flavors. They eliminated over 400 potentially harmful ingredients from their beauty products. They don’t test their products on animals. They’ve removed potential health hazards like parabens, polypropylene, and sulfates.

Their packaging is clean and minimalist. Here are some of my favorites:

They sell household cleaners, too, which meet the Safer-Choice Standards of the United States. Their paper products come from verified forests that meet responsible forestry standards. Their feminine hygiene products do not use chlorine bleach, rayon, fragrance, or dyes, which are linked to toxic health effects.

Their disposable paper plates, cups, lids, and cutlery are biodegradable. Their paper products are derived from materials that decrease their use of non-renewable resources like petroleum.

They currently ship only to the contiguous United States. The brand has potential and a lot of popularity already, so we may see it international soon.

With every order you place with Brandless, they donate a meal to Feeding America to help those facing hunger. Brandless has plans to encourage its members to attend volunteer and community events. I’m excited to see where Brandless will go. And in the meantime, hopefully it will help some of us save time and money.

Read below some key takeaways from a recent global survey from Dimension Data

The Digital Workplace Report looks into how organisations are evolving from a traditional office environment to a digital workplace. They surveyed 850 business and IT leaders who are driving changes within their companies around the world.

¼ of businesses predict workspace analytics tools, augmented reality tools, and micro-training will have a role in the office environment within the year.

62% expect virtual advisors to have a place in their companies in the next 2 years. These virtual assistants are bots in applications that use artificial intelligence and machine learning.

With the right soft skills, you can easily master the many challenges of starting and running a successful and highly profitable business. We are teaching coders like you how to stand out in the tech industry and successfully start a company.

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We based this course on proven psychological methods and on our experience in the coding industry. We’ve narrowed down the specific skills you need to get ahead and stay ahead as a successful coding entrepreneur.

Here’s just some of the topics you can look forward to learning:

Fusing soft skills and software development

Marketing your business and being a great self-promoter

Hiring the right people

If you haven’t completed your core coding studies, this course can be done in parallel to any coding course.

If you aren’t starting your own business, you will still find this course useful. Whether you are part of a coding team or management in client-facing position, you can benefit.

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This course is fully accredited by the CPD Standards Agency, the globally recognised Professional Development Standards Agency. Taking this course will give you the opportunity to gain a Diploma as well as 20 hours of CPD / CE Credits.

If you want to start your own coding business, there’s much more to it than the technical aspects of the job.

We want to teach coders how to stand out in the tech industry and successfully start their own business. Even if you don’t want to make your own company, this course will teach you skills that will make you invaluable wherever you work.